London, 6 September 2023: We’re pleased to announce today the strengthening of our grants practice with the appointment of Dr Jonathan Memel as our new Senior Manager for grants.
His appointment forms part of a broader business strategy to support our offering as a partner to businesses for the full cycle of innovation, from ideation to delivery. By its nature, grant funding tends to be more forward-looking than R&D Tax claims, which are applied for retrospectively. In bolstering our grants practice, we are seeking to support businesses from the earliest stages of the innovation journey.
Memel comes to the role with seven years’ experience in grant funding. His previous roles include Grant Fund Specialist at the University of Manchester, where he achieved a top two UK ranking working with 350 researchers to drastically increase the number of grants won. He has worked with businesses in sectors from MedTech to software to secure funding for their innovations.
Alongside this work, Memel has served as an assessor for UKRI (UK Research and Innovation, including Innovate UK), giving him a good sense of what UK grant funders are looking for in competitive applications.
When speaking of his first priorities in his new role, Memel shared that “Helping innovative businesses capture the opportunities related to the UK’s net-zero ambitions is top of my list. Skidmore’s Net Zero Review published earlier this year underscored the potential commercial opportunities that the transition to a sustainable economy presents for businesses. I’m already looking ahead to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement to see if there will be any further policy announcements that might attempt to match up to the US’ Inflation Reduction Act and EU’s Net Zero Industry Act.”
The UK Government has allocated £4.5 billion to invest in net zero business grants between 2022 and 2025. To benefit from this investment, we will support innovative businesses developing green technology in areas such as hydrogen, carbon capture and net zero transport, as well as carbon-intensive businesses with energy efficiency and decarbonisation initiatives.
Speaking of the appointment, Mark Smith, Partner of Innovation Incentives, added that “Jonathan’s appointment marks a renewed commitment to our grant funding offer, as grant applications require specialist knowledge with a rigorous application process. Adding Jonathan to the team allows us to be an innovation partner to our clients at every stage of their R&D journey. Now that the Government has aligned its net zero and innovation strategies, businesses are in a strong position to capitalise – but they don’t know where to start. To put it simply, we want to maximise the help we can offer.”
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About Ayming
Ayming, the international innovation and performance consultancy, combines highly specialised knowledge – across a range of fields – with hands-on collaboration to enable our clients and their people to go further.
We are 1300 employees operating in 15 countries across Europe, North America, and Asia. We have a proven track record of providing leadership and sharing insight for over 30 years. By focusing on innovation, finance and people, Ayming consistently delivers a strong return on investment.
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